Miriam
Did italki delete the distinction between native tongue and C2 level?
Before the relaunch, the mother tongue was marked with green bars and the other languages with red bars. If I’d put my English level on C2, how would people know (apart from me explaining in the introduction or them reading my English posts and noticing my mistakes) that German is my mother tongue and that I’m fluent in English and not the other way around?
11 ส.ค. 2019 เวลา 18:18
ความคิดเห็น · 8
3
@John
I'm not worrying about my own mistakes but we just had a discussion in another thread where one user had only for English all red bars, but wasn't writing on a native level and also not even on a C2 level. Everyone assumed that he was falsely posing as native English speaker and thus deceiving their language exchange partners. I also wonder, if it's possible to not display any "native tongue" on italki.

@Gray
Yeah, and most users don't bother reading the profile anyway, so they would ask "Where are you from?", "What languages are you learnin?" "What is your nother tongue?" and I'm thinking to myself "Ugh, just read my profile..."
11 สิงหาคม 2019
3
😁
11 สิงหาคม 2019
3

Yes, I noticed this.  It's one of the (many!) things I dislike about the new version of Italki.  

I think they're making this change on the theory that there's no meaningful difference between native fluency and a C2 level.  To some extent, I can see the argument, because there are plenty of native English speakers who know vastly less about grammar, for instance, than a C2 speaker does.  I assume that Italki's reasoning is that the new system will discourage people from assuming that a person is less proficient in a language just because it is not their native tongue.

I would say, though, that the difference between a native speaker and a C2-level speaker is significant.  Fluent and native are not the same thing.

Also, on the classic version of Italki, if you're on a computer, you can hover your mouse over a person's user image, and you'll see what country they're from and what their language levels are.  On the new Italki, you can't do this, which means if you want to find out where they're from, you have to actually click on their profile.  It seems like Italki is trying to make it harder to find out what languages other users speak.  It seems to me like this will be bad for the Answers forum, where people who post questions usually want to know whether the person answering their question is a native speaker, or at least a fluent speaker, rather than a fellow learner.

(Oops.  Edited to fix a sentence that made no sense.  As John says, we all make mistakes. Especially when we don't proofread. :P)

11 สิงหาคม 2019
2
@ Miriam I think sometimes it is a genuine mistake by new members that select the wrong level because italki can often be unintuitive to use. I almost clicked the wrong place when I joined. A long time ago I decided to have a blank profile and just state where I was born and Itlaki automatically selects what I am learning, and people can judge for themselves based on what I do here and how I act here. I do not think I really need a profile if I do not teach or tutor.
11 สิงหาคม 2019
2
@Dmitry
You're right! I haven't noticed that difference. Oh my, italki is taking another step to less user friendliness. For users with visual impairments it'll be impossible to make out that difference.
11 สิงหาคม 2019
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Miriam
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